Contents

French Huguenots

Huguenot History • 1436 Printing press invented by Johannes Gutenberg• 1517 Sales of Indulgences by Pope Leo X (Johannes Tetzel)o Spanish Inquisition, priests discourage reading of the Bible, suppress lay people• 1517 Martin Luther posted his 97 theses in front of the castle church in Wittenberg• 1523 First French translation of Bible• 1509-1564 John Calvin organized the first French church in Strasbourg about 1538. He settled definitively in Geneva in 1541• 1559 First national Huguenot Synod in Paris.• 1660s Louis XIV (une foi, une loi, un rois)• 1562 The massacre of Vassy • 1572 Massacre of Saint Barthélemy (24 August 1572) • 1598 Edict of Nantes was signed • 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV• 1685–1785 “Period of the Desert”• 1787 Edict of Tolerance

Difficulties of Huguenot Research

Surname SpellingsThe French Huguenots moved within France. They moved from one country to another before arriving in the United States, and even there they moved around. Their names changed and are hardly recognizable in their original French form. “Names have been translated, transliterated, paraphrased, misspelled, transmogrified into a perfect kaleidoscope of confusion” (The Forse Name in History by Ancestry.com, Edward Forse).

Huguenot Migration

The Edict of Nantes in 1598 granted some freedom to the Huguenots, but was revoked in 1685. After the revocation the Huguenots were harassed intolerably. All Protestant meetings were forbidden, all pastors had to leave France, but the laymen were encouraged to remain and abjure. Many stayed and converted back to Catholicism; about 20% left France.

Migration started about 1550 and continued up to the French Revolution. Many refugees who came to America left from England. Typically they lived temporarily in one of the surrounding Protestant countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland before migrating to England and may be found in records of those countries.

European Huguenot Sources in the Family History Catalog

Card Index of the Huguenots from the Walloon Library in Leiden 1500–1828• 3 Indexes (Leiden—Bibliothèque Wallonne)

Bulletin of the Society of History of French Protestantism • See the Society's website at: http://www.shpf.fr/Indexes for v. 1–111 944B2sp, • Vol. 1–114 available on film only, 115+ are available in the “Europe book” section

Weekly public assistance to Huguenots—Frankfurt 1685–1855• Weekly assistance given to refugees, lists also baptisms, has index

Family Genealogy in the Walloon Library • Pedigrees of the members of the French Colony in Berlin FHL 106811

Huguenot Surname Index Quarto Series compiled by Cecile Ramsay-Sharp• Index 1–40 on British film # 6414546• Index 41–59 on British film # 6220423• CDs are available for purchase from the Huguenot Society of Great Britain and Ireland

• Table du Bulletin Historique et Littéraire, Bulletin of the Society of History of French Protestantism http://www.shpf.fr/

• Records of Huguenots in the United States, Canada and the West Indies with some mention of Dutch and German sources, World Conference on Records and Genealogical Seminar, Salt Lake City 5–8 August 1969, Cameron Allen, M.A., F.A.S.G

http://huguenots-france.org/ Huguenots de France et d’Ailleurs, French-based site. (Also accessible in German, Spanish, & English.) A major Protestant genealogy site of France with over 60,000 to search.